Your Freedom Needs Free Software

Many of us know that governments can threaten the human rights of
software users through censorship and surveillance of the Internet.
Many do not realize that the software they run on their home or work
computers can be an even worse threat. Thinking of software as
‘just a tool’, they suppose that it obeys them, when in
fact it often obeys others instead.

The software running in most computers is non-free,
proprietary software: controlled by software companies, not
by its users. Users can't check what these programs do, nor
prevent them from doing what they don't want. Most people accept
this because they have seen no other way, but it is simply wrong
to give developers power over the users' computer.

This unjust power, as usual, tempts its wielders to further
misdeeds. If a computer talks to a network, and you don't control the
software in it, it can easily spy on you. Microsoft Windows spies on
users; for instance, it reports what words a user searches for in her
own files, and what other programs are installed. RealPlayer spies
too; it reports what the user plays. Cell phones are full of non-free
software, which spies. Cell phones send out localizing signals even
when ‘off’, many can send out your precise GPS location
whether you wish or not, and some models can be switched on remotely
as listening devices. Users can't fix these malicious features
because they don't have control.

Some proprietary software is designed to restrict and attack its
users. Windows Vista is a big
advance in this field; the reason it requires replacement of old
hardware is that the new models are designed to support unbreakable
restrictions. Microsoft thus requires users to pay for shiny new
shackles. It is also designed to permit forced updating by corporate
authority. Hence the BadVista.org
campaign, which urges Windows users not to ‘upgrade’ to
Vista. (For the equally malicious Windows 7 and Windows 8, we now have
Windows7Sins.org and
UpgradeFromWindows8.org.)
Mac OS also contains features designed to restrict its users.

Microsoft has installed back doors for the US government's use in
the past (reported on
heise.de). We cannot check whether they have successors today.
Other proprietary programs may or may not have back doors, but since
we cannot check them, we cannot trust them.

A special problem occurs when activists for social change use
proprietary software, because its developers, who control it, may be
companies they wish to protest—or that work hand in glove with the
states whose policies they oppose. Control of our software by a
proprietary software company, whether it be Microsoft, Apple, Adobe or
Skype, means control of what we can say, and to whom. This threatens
our freedom in all areas of life.

There is also danger in using a company's server to do your word
processing or email—and not just if you are in China, as US lawyer
Michael Springmann discovered. In 2003, AOL not only handed over to
the police his confidential discussions with clients, it also made his
email and his address list disappear, and didn't admit this was
intentional until one of its staff made a slip. Springmann gave up on
getting his data back.

The US is not the only state that doesn't respect human rights, so
keep your data on your own computer, and your backups under your own
custody—and run your computer with Free/Libre software.